it is a very, very difficult environment for this president and for this administration. especially since this whole national security team is about to turnover as well with secretary clinton stepping down. >> and jonathon politics involved over there as well. benjamin netanyahu was not having a good go of things. the iran thing was not playing well at all. you can argue all day about who started this. you can go back to the 67 borders and beyond if you want to, but the escalation happened at a time of political turmoil for netanyahu, and as a result his poll numbers are up and he looks like he is going to win. so you have that. >> you have to put all of this in the context of the upcoming election. of course prime minister netanyahu has tajen a hard line throughout his term. this is the first time he has ordered this kind of devastating airstrikes and threatened this kind of ground war. everything as it does here so often takes place against a background of domestic politics. you can't dismiss that. >> it is difficult for anybody to put all of this together. ed, the turm